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Once the staff members have an idea of what they have to work with, they begin to tinker. As an 18-year-old in 2005, Andrew McCutchen hit .310 in a season split between rookie ball and short-season Class A but only hit two home runs. When McCutchen reached low-A Hickory in 2006, manager Jeff Branson taught him to harvest more power from his legs during his swing. McCutchen hit 17 homers that season and retained that power, hitting 31 for the Pirates in 2012.

Maybe it's just bad writing, but this is the sort of thing that makes me think all this background checking is having little/no impact.

The story to this point was about pitchers and about digging deeper to get to know them so you could potentially tailor an approach that will work for them. But our example is a hitter. From 2006. Being assessed based on his performance in the organization at age 18, not on deep information they've dug up. A hitter being taught what surely every team tries to teach every hitter -- how to hit for more power.